Serpent!

Pre-birthday excitement galore.  

I was lazy this evening, prematurely assuming some birthday attitude that, in my imagination, allows me to shirk my normal responsibilities.  And i was late putting up the baby chicks.  They had decided (for what reason i cannot gather) to sleep outside again tonight.  And when i saw that, i was reluctant to fulfill my required chores of laboriously placing them one by one inside the safe coop.

Finally, between 9:30 and 10:00, i decided it best if i go take care of my babies.

I used the flash light and found two groups of chicks lying around in the dirt, and then a third something i couldn't identify.  Finally, my brain figured out what i was seeing, and when it did, i turned and ran back to the house, busted in the door, yelling, "THERE'S A SNAKE IN THE COOP EATIN' MY CHICKEN!"  (Read this with exaggerated country Texas accent for maximum entertainment.)  The snake wasn't really in the coop; he was in the run, but this is what happens when you yell things when you're excited.

What i had seen (don't worry, i didn't take a picture of this part) was a chicken snake about 1/3 of the way through swallowing one of my 3 week old chicks!  Bad snake!

Anyway, upon my bursting into the house with news of serpent, my husband (read gun slinging hero) grabbed my self-defense hand gun and a flashlight, proceeded to the run, and shot the wriggling snake twice, once in the body (the excitement of which, inspired the snake to let go of the chick), and once in the head.  My husband is a great shot.  Remember that, human interlopers.

Here is the snake.  He's about 4 feet long.  

Here's his head, with bullet wound.

Here's his middle.

Here's his tail, which continues to wriggle and alarm the dogs, which is incidentally, kind of fun to watch.

And here's my gun-slingin' hero.  Muah!